New Colo. wildfire prompts evacuations of homes EVERGREEN, Colo. (AP) — A new wildfire in the foothills southwest of Denver forced the evacuation of dozens of homes Wednesday as hot and windy conditions in much of Colorado and elsewhere in the West made it easy for fires to start and spread. The Lime Gulch Fire in Pike National Forest was small but devouring trees about 30 miles southwest of Denver in southern Jefferson County. More than 100 people within three miles of the fire were ordere...

House passes far-reaching anti-abortion bill WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Tuesday passed a far-reaching anti-abortion bill that conservatives saw as a milestone in their 40-year campaign against legalized abortion and Democrats characterized as yet another example of a GOP war on women. The legislation, sparked by the murder conviction of a Philadelphia late-term abortion provider, would restrict almost all abortions to the first 20 weeks after conception, defying laws i...

Utah man shot in church upgraded to fair condition OGDEN, Utah (AP) — A Utah man shot in the head during a Father’s Day Mass was upgraded to fair condition Tuesday — just a few hours after his son-in-law was charged with attempted homicide in the shooting. On his 66th birthday, James Evans was moved out of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, another step in what doctors expect to be a full recovery. The bullet police say was fired at point-blank range by his son-in-law, Cha...

CBO: Senate Immigration bill would help economy WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping immigration legislation moving toward a vote in the Senate would boost the economy and reduce federal deficits, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, at the same time it would bestow legal status on an estimated 8 million immigrants living in the United States unlawfully. In an assessment that drew cheers from the White House and other backers of the bill, Congress’ scorekeeping agency said the measure would ...

Jury can’t reach verdict in Detroit cop’s trial DETROIT (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Detroit police officer who fatally shot a 7-year-old girl during a chaotic search for a murder suspect that was recorded by a reality TV crew. Loud voices could be heard in the jury room a few hours before jurors threw in the towel and were dismissed. They sent three notes, the last one indicating they still couldn’t reach a unanimous ve...

NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying. The House Intelligence Committee hearing provided a venue for officials to defend the once-secret programs and did little probing of claims that the...

Chrysler agrees to recall of Jeeps at risk of fire DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler abruptly agreed to recall 2.7 million older model Jeeps Tuesday, reversing a defiant stance and avoiding a possible public relations nightmare over fuel tanks that can rupture and cause fires in rear-end collisions. In deciding on the recall, Chrysler sidestepped a showdown with government safety regulators that could have led to public hearings with witnesses providing details of deadly crashes involving the Jeeps. The...

Medicare: Cost-saving changes coming for diabetics WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare begins a major change next month that could save older diabetics money and time when they buy crucial supplies to test their blood sugar — but it also may cause some confusion as patients figure out the new system. On July 1, Medicare opens a national mail-order program that will dramatically drop the prices the government pays for those products but patients will have to use designated suppliers. The goal is to save...

Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers. Over nearly four decades, authorities have pursued multiple leads into Hoffa’s death that yielded nothing. Yet the mystery endures, fueled by a public fasci...

Fracking fuels water fights in nation’s dry spots SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The latest domestic energy boom is sweeping through some of the nation’s driest pockets, drawing millions of gallons of water to unlock oil and gas reserves from beneath the Earth’s surface. Hydraulic fracturing, or the drilling technique commonly known as fracking, has been used for decades to blast huge volumes of water, fine sand and chemicals into the ground to crack open valuable shale formations. But now, as energy c...

Military plans would put women in most combat jobs WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring “the days of Rambo are over,” a top general said Tuesday that cultural, social and behavioral concerns may be bigger hurdles than tough physical fitness requirements for women looking to join the military’s special operations units. Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, director of force management for U.S. Special Operations Command, said having seen women working alongside commando teams in Afghanistan, he is less concerned ...

Wake-up call: Starbucks to post calorie counts NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks has a new way to wake up its customers: showing the calories in its drinks. The Seattle-based coffee chain says it will start posting calorie counts on menu boards nationwide next week, ahead of a federal regulation that would require it to do so. Calorie counts on menus are already required in some parts of the country, including New York City. But starting June 25, Starbucks Corp. says customers at its more than 11,...

Extensive ancient city unearthed by airborne laser WASHINGTON (AP) — New airborne laser scanning data has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating an entire bustling ancient city linking Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temples complex. The discovery was announced late Monday in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laser scanning shows a previously undocumented formal urban planned landscape integrating the 1,200 ye...

World looks to Bernanke to clarify stimulus plans WASHINGTON (AP) — Is the era of ultra-low interest rates nearing an end? When he takes questions this week after a Federal Reserve meeting, Chairman Ben Bernanke will confront investors’ fears that rates are headed higher. Financial markets have been gyrating in the 3 1/2 weeks since Bernanke told Congress the Fed might scale back its effort to keep long-term rates at record lows within “the next few meetings”— earlier than many had assumed. B...

To ease shortage of organs, grow them in a lab? NEW YORK (AP) — By the time 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan finally got a lung transplant last week, she’d been waiting for months, and her parents had sued to give her a better shot at surgery. Her cystic fibrosis was threatening her life, and her case spurred a debate on how to allocate donor organs. Lungs and other organs for transplant are scarce. But what if there were another way? What if you could grow a custom-made organ in a lab? It sound...

Ohio police chief takes criminals to task online KENT, Ohio (AP) — If you’re up to no good in this pocket of northeast Ohio, especially in a witless way, you’re risking not only jail time or a fine but a swifter repercussion with a much larger audience: You’re in for a social media scolding from police Chief David Oliver and some of his small department’s 52,000-plus Facebook fans. And Oliver does not mince words. In postings interspersed with community messages and rants, the Brimfield Town...

Report: Too many teachers, too little quality WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s teacher-training programs do not adequately prepare would-be educators for the classroom, even as they produce almost triple the number of graduates needed, according to a survey of more than 1,000 programs released Tuesday. The National Council on Teacher Quality review is a scathing assessment of colleges’ education programs and their admission standards, training and value. The report, which drew immediate cri...

Transgender candidate could become a first in NYC NEW YORK (AP) — Mel Wymore is a typical city council candidate in many ways, campaigning as a community board appointee, ex-PTA chair and founder of a roster of local organizations. But Wymore’s community-leader resume has an unusual feature: He built much of it while he was a woman. If he wins, Wymore would be the first openly transgender person elected to public office in the nation’s biggest city and one of only a handful ever in the U.S., ...

IRS worker: No political bias against tea party WASHINGTON (AP) — An Internal Revenue Service manager and self-described conservative Republican said the close scrutiny of tea party groups’ tax forms originated in his Cincinnati IRS office and not in Washington, according to a full transcript of his interview by congressional investigators released Tuesday. John Shafer, who oversaw a small group of IRS workers who screen applications for tax-exempt status, told the investigators that the in...

Food companies work to make it look natural NEW YORK (AP) — Here’s the latest goal for food makers: Perfect the art of imperfection. When stretching out the dough for its premium “Artisan Pizzas,” Domino’s workers are instructed not to worry about making the rectangles too perfect: The pies are supposed to have a more rustic look. At McDonald’s, the egg whites for the new breakfast sandwich called the Egg White Delight McMuffin have a loose shape rather than the round discs used in the ...